this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. apple does it again — the tech company wows with its latest results inching it even closer to being worth a trillion dollars on wall street. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday the 1st of august. the iphone—maker didn't sell quite as many smartphones as expected but the higher ticket price was a big boost to apple's bottom—line. also in the programme... more tough trade talk from washington with reports that 25% tariffs could be imposed on $200bn worth of chinese goods. we will look at the numbers and explain everything you need to know.

and do you ever need a gift for that person who has everything? one website brings together the best in boutique shops — it is called not on the high street. we will get the inside track. and as facebook blocks 32 accounts linked to fake news — we want to know what do you use facebook for? is it news? or keeping in touch? or shopping? let us know — just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. let us know your thoughts. i thought it was just for posting annoying holiday pictures. hello and welcome to business live. apple has taken another step towards becoming the first trillion dollar tech company after it announced its third quarter results. the number everyone wanted to see is this, how many iphones were sold

— 41.3 million. and while that number was only 1% higher than a year ago, iphone revenue actually rose 20% as more customers opted for apple's most expensive, and profitable phone, the iphone x. overall revenues came in at $53.3 billion, comfortably beating analyst's expectations. but the really interesting figure is that of apple's services revenue, things like itunes, icloud and apple music. revenue there grew 31% compared to the same quarter last year. and the markets liked it too, shares of apple gained more than 3.5% in after—hours trade. john detrixhe is with quartz. you were saying before that this is a big company. they work in an industry where there is a lot of saturation and competition, coming

from korea, chinese manufacturers, and they are navigating this very well. they are charging more for the top—of—the—line product and they have their services segment, the wea ra ble have their services segment, the wearable segment. they are managing a very difficult environment with a great deal of expertise. it would seem, although they saw a slight rise in iphone sales, the rise is profitable, because they are selling a much more expensive phones like the iphone ten, nearly $1000. but they are also seeing massive growth on things like apple services. this whole apple experiences permeating oui’ whole apple experiences permeating our lives more and more? sadly, this isa our lives more and more? sadly, this is a great big company that is mature. you have to find new ways to grow and find other ways of growth, things like services. it's not the super exciting coming up with a new product business, but it is the kind of thing that rewards shareholders. they have an immense stock buy—back programme that is also helping to lift shares. what will happen next

four apple? what is going to be the next product, there is never something that seems to have topped the iphone and how valuable that is in terms of its portfolio. what is your outlook for this company? well, efflux and we will find out more in september. they are talking about new devices that will be coming forward , new devices that will be coming forward, larger displays, higher quality displays, facial recognition. but this is... you pointed to the really big challenge for these guys, these are expensive products, they are lasting longer in some cases. i personally am taking longer to upgrade. they have to come up longer to upgrade. they have to come up with a great innovation to make you want to buy the new one. it is getting harder and harder to do. not so getting harder and harder to do. not so long ago there was a terrible headline about apple, that they were actually slowing down people's phones with software updates in order to encourage us to buy the next phone or upgrade the iphone. they seem to have kind of got over

that hurdle, as it were. but i think it has stuck in the minds of some users that perhaps this company is not necessarily as for the customers we think? right, ithink not necessarily as for the customers we think? right, i think you make a great point there. they made the right noises about looking at the customers, we are going to change some of these features, we were never doing it to hurt you, it was about battery life. but it stuck in about battery life. but it stuck in a lot of people's minds. at the same time, we live in a world now were it perhaps looks relatively pedestrian compared to undermining western democracy in elections. choosing between that and the concerns about social media manipulation and that kind of thing, it looks relatively small in comparison. absolutely, thank you so much for coming in. i appreciate it. a lot more about apple on the website. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. us secretary of state mike pompeo kicks off a tour of southeast asia today, starting first with malaysia. the trip coincides with his announcement on monday that washington plans to invest $113 million in countries all across asia.

but possible trade tariffs on china could weigh heavily during mr pompeo's visit chinese internet search giant baidu has topped wall street estimates for quarterly profit on the back of strong growth in its online advertising business. revenue was up 25% to $3.10 billion. the company has seen rapid growth in its news feed product, an app that is similar to facebook‘s feed. lloyds banking group has said it has put aside another $604 million in costs for payment protection insurance mis—selling claims. that's on top of the $24 billion already put aside. the provision came as lloyds said its profits for the first six months of the year rose by nearly a quarter. the us is considering 25% tariffs on $200 billion of chinese goods, that's higher than the 10% previously reported. this would be a further escalation in trade tensions

between the us and china. katie silver is in singapore. that's the question, we talked about the 10% tariffs having an effect. 2596 is the 10% tariffs having an effect. 25% is even worse? the 10% tariffs having an effect. 2596 is even worse? that's right, what we are seeing here is a real ratcheting up of the pressure from washington towards beijing. as you say, we knew about 10%. these reports are today have increased this to 25%. this is up to 6000 goods. this includes food products, minerals, even consumer products such as handbags. sources have told bloomberg that this escalation will be announced in the next 24 hours. what it means is that if you take it all together with the other tariffs that have been announced, they could be 25% tariffs on half of what the us imports from china. what this is all about is bringing beijing to the negotiating table. but in a weaker position. the truth is, nobody wants

to see this to go on for a long time. the us wants to resolve this trade war before it hurts the american consumer. katie, thanks very much, one that we will keep a close eye on. i know you will keep us close eye on. i know you will keep us date with that. in asia, stocks higher, despite china's manufacturing sector slowing more than expected injuly,. that's down to that worsening trade dispute with the us, bad weather and weaker domestic demand. we touched on apple earlier. shares up, based on the earnings. helping the nasdaq, which has fallen pretty sharply after a warts on facebook and other tech firms. in europe, a raft of economic data on the way. particularly in the uk. we get the latest manufacturing data and that's ahead of a rate decision due from the bank of england tomorrow.

and an update from the fed — as kim gittleson can explain from new york. first, the us federal reserve will conclude its two day policy meeting. most observers are expecting the federal bank will keep the target interest rate at somewhere between 1.75 and 2%. the key question is what america's central bank will have to say about the possible economic impact of president donald trump's trade war. after markets close, tesla will report earnings. elon musk has promised it will be the last quarter in which the company is unprofitable. if it seems like tesla is not on track to turn a profit by the second half of this year, that could make wall street anxious. already, tesla's stock is the most bet against stock on wall street. jeremy stretch, head of currency strategy at cibc world markets

good morning. nice to see you. really busy week. indeed it is. we have already heard the bank of japan today, the bank of england tomorrow. we also have a mass of forward—looking economic data. also, we get numbers in a similar vein in europe, but also particularly in the us. from the fed, as kim said, no surprise expected. maybe a different picture from the bank of england. i guess we will talk a lot about this tomorrow, but investors are looking at this a lot? looks like the bank of england will raise interest rates above 0.5%, for the first time since the beginning of 2009, which underlines the length and the period where we have been labouring under difficulties in the post—global financial crisis world. there are still some debate as to whether the

market is correct, a degree of certainty as there currently is, about a 90% probability. i think it is far less than that. i think there are reasons for the bank to say, actually, even if they hiked rates they will probably argue in the subsequent press conference that they will begin a position to lower rates again of the conditions warrant it. conditions were warranted in relation the brexit related certainty is that continue to impact consumers and businesses alike. we are enjoying a summer recess from the political toing and froing in the uk. in the meantime, the prime minister is going to meet with emmanuel macron on friday and is trying to sell the deal in europe? indeed. i think is trying to sell the deal in europe? indeed. ithink that is trying to sell the deal in europe? indeed. i think that is an interesting point. in a sense, when it was announced that theresa may was taking personal control operative negotiations, sterling had a brief rally. in a sense, the market was hoping that by taking the negotiations to an executive level, that perhaps might allow a little bit more moderation in terms of the language. it will be fascinating to

see how theresa may gets on because there is an informal summit in australia, salzburg, and maybe theresa may will use that as an opportunity to really brief all of the european leaders about her plans in an attempt to try to break the impasse. we shall watch this space. jeremy will be back later. still to come... boutique shopping has never been easier. not—on—the—high—street brings thousands of small uk shops to one website — but how can it guarantee the quality of all its vendors? we'll find out in a few minutes. one of the co—founders will be with us one of the co—founders will be with us in the studio. you're with business live from bbc news. good news for home owners — uk house prices increased by 2.5% last month, a modest improvement from the month earlier. not great news if you're trying to

get on the property ladder, though. with the bank of england expected to increase rates on thursday, many of course will be wondering what impact that would have on the uk housing market. robert gardner, chief economist, at nationwide. robert, talk us through where we are seeing growth. some parts of the housing market are really struggling still? overall, annual house price growth picked up to 2.5% injuly from 2% in june. growth picked up to 2.5% injuly from 2% injune. to be fair, i house price growth has been in a fairly narrow range for the last 12 months. what we are seeing is a continuation of that trend. if you look regionally, what we have seen is fairly narrow range of outcomes outside of london. in the second quarter, the strongest parts of the country with a midlands, where house price growth was about 2.4%, but london was the real outlier, with prices down 2% year—on—year, and that was the fourth consecutive quarter when annual house price

growth was negative, albeit the declines were fairly small. tomorrow we expect the rise in rates in the uk. a lot of mortgage holders, some of them are already very squeezed. if we see a rise in rates, could that affect affordability? the impact on existing homeowners is likely to be small compartment because most mortgage lending has been fixed rates. if you look at the stock of mortgages it is only about 35% of mortgages that are actually ona 35% of mortgages that are actually on a variable rate. even for those borrowers on a variable rate, the increase only translates into about £16 a month extra on the typical mortgage. the impact should be fairly modest for existing borrowers. for new borrowers, most of them have been taken out on fixed rates and those are linked to longer term interest rates that are already factoring in increases in interest rates cost of borrowing costs, mortgage rates, are already close to historic lows. hopefully the impact on the wider market will be fairly

modest. thank you very much, robert gardner, chief economist at nationwide. all of the other results are coming through on the business... business live page, including results from next. your're watching business live — our top story — apple beats expectations, making $53.3 billion in revenue in the third quarter — over 50,000,000,003 months, quite impressive! because of this. a lot of people trading got two new phones and their most expensive phone. any charge a lot for them so great news for the bottom line, their revenue.

buying a gift is never particularly easy. what do you buy for someone who has everything? like ben, for example. what do you buy me, where is it? chances are you scroll through the big internet sites like amazon and ebay to find something — but what if you want something a bit different? well, there's been a boom in smaller, independent firms joinng forces with retail websites to showcase their products to a much larger audience. it is an audience they want a part of. consumers make — on average — 18.4 purchases on line every year — as that shift away from bricks and mortar shops continues. that adds up to a staggering $1.9 trillion dollar industry spent online each year. many retailers want a slice of that action — but how important is it to be one of the first in the queue? one person who might be able to answer that is sophie cornish,

no—founder, not on the high street. welcome to the programme. and you are one of the first out there, you we re very are one of the first out there, you were very early on, winch to create this company? we went live in 2006. but the making of it was going on for a couple of years before that. and, yes, it was all about the rise, as you were just saying. not on the high street means exactly that, you are not on the high street. it is an online offering for those customers connected to many, many businesses selling stuff. absolutely, we are purely online although we do have some experience in the wider retail market. but, yes, we support 5,000 small businesses. but we started back then in 2006 with just 100. and we we re back then in 2006 with just 100. and we were seeing these businesses,

there were absolutely amazing and we could see that they had massive potential, but they were really struggling to get to market. at exactly the same time as our customers was starting to be very clearly disgruntled with the high street, they wanted to see something different, something unique, something much more thoughtful to give as gifts and for themselves as well. you talk about setting up in 2006, it does not seem like a long time ago. but the technology and the stuff you can do on the website now is so different to those days back in 2006. how has that changed? technology has changed dramatically. when we started, it was one of the reasons we were able to start on a relative shoestring budget. the web developing companies were as new as we we re developing companies were as new as we were so the environment was learning as they went along. and i

think that was something that helped us think that was something that helped us at the beginning. what was one of the hardest things at the beginning? i think it is really hard work. and it is, it can be 24/7, and that is something we found with our small business partners, that they really experienced exactly the same thing, that it experienced exactly the same thing, thatitis experienced exactly the same thing, that it is just a gruelling workload and you have to find a load of skills. some you have, some, you don't. you learn as you go along. and you are quite different to your other co—founder, holly tucker, you said you, meant each other in terms of your attitude to risk and personality, but you found it quite tough to gain investment and the backing you needed. a lot of that, you believe, is because of your gender? yes, it is tough getting finance, it is a lot easier than it was. and again, we're not doing it any more, but we know our sellers are doing and at least 50% say it is

are doing and at least 50% say it is a struggle. what we found was, yes, it was 12 years ago, the city was still the heartland of funding and the city was even more than now predominantly male. yes, we definitely had some issues. we have entrepreneurs on this programme, female, who say they've find that now still especially in the city of london, when they see venture capitalists wanting funding and because they are female, they are in a room full of man and it is tricky. it is intimidating. that is why confidence is so key. and i think, we have done some research and we have found that women are 2.5 times more likely to is —— more likely to say confidence is a reason for not growing their business. as a woman going into the city, it is notjust it is all men, the culture is very male. i was going to say, i am looking through the website and not

just using things for you to big for me! you talk about those 5,000 partners you work with and that is added work. you have to maintain those relationships and make sure the quality is good, that is a lot of work. and that is quite unusual rather than stuck in august of yourself and selling it, why do it that way and work with these partners? more than anything, it enables us to kind of continually refresh and bring really new, innovative, creative products, products made with heritage, skills, products made with heritage, skills, products that are really truly thoughtful from the seller and the buyer. it also allows us to support small businesses and help them grow. we have all sorts provisions. we have meet up events, we have a community to help them share ideas and skills and give each other confidence. so itjust seems the kind of perfect way to bring really

thoughtful, unique products to customers. and what have you found that has gone wrong for you? you started a company some time ago that has £165 million worth of turnover. yes, exactly. we grew from 135,000 in ourfirst yearto yes, exactly. we grew from 135,000 in ourfirst year to huge yes, exactly. we grew from 135,000 in our first year to huge growth now. we have a number of £1 million partners. what is really different is that the businesses, they want to grow. they are hungary. all right. it has been great to meet you, thank you very much. plenty of ideas to give you later, if you need to buy a present. all right, it will take a look. this is how to keep in touch. stay up—to—date with the business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page with analysis from our team of editors round the globe. and we want to hear from you. get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page. on twitter... and you

can find us on facebook... business live, on tv and online, what you need to know, when you need to know it. and many of you have been in touch this morning about facebook. jeremy is back. this is the news that broke late yesterday, facebook having to take down 32 accounts, some on facebook and some on instagram because of disinformation. the internet companies are taking this fake news issue really seriously. facebook is, we don't know about the others. seriously. facebook is, we don't know about the otherslj seriously. facebook is, we don't know about the others. i suspect the others will follow. there is a mood music to suggest there is a real pressure point and battle against fa ke pressure point and battle against fake news and bad actors trying to instil the internet with news which is inappropriate for the wider population. so this is a story that will run and run. certainly into the mid—term elections in the us and into other democratic processes locally. this comes amid the big

advertising campaign from facebook to say we are going to try to get back to you came to us in the first place, friends and pictures are not politics and polarised views. we are asking you this morning what you use facebook for, linda says, i use it for prostate cancer support group after her husband's diagnosis and a lot of charity work. peter does it to see what family and runs are doing. for others, it is my only point of contact. yes, family and friends. i have heard from many this morning who are critical of facebook, not saying what they use it for but saying how they had been put off facebook and facebook has to be proactive about this. its credibility has clearly been tested and its reputation has been tested and its reputation has been harmed by the news flow over recent days and weeks and you could argue the company has been relatively late in terms of addressing these issues, and now they are attempting to do that. interesting to see how quickly or whether they can rebuild that credibility. it is so interesting

the way that people use these social media sites, how they come and go. do you use it? i'm afraid i don't, well, not afraid, i don't actively use it. as you have seen, there are many who use it ultimately for good things. positive things. and a lot of young people saying they would not touch facebook, it is all about snapped up. yes, they use the different websites. somebody this morning said, i don't use it but my wife would feel lost without it. a lot of people use it for connectivity. to interact with the number of people. so increasingly socially isolated and internet and sites like this can be used to offset this. thank you, nice to see you. thanks very much, we'll see you soon. hello. northwest, south east whipped

through the next couple of days. cloudier skies with a greater chance of seeing showery rain. further north, and the best of the brightness in the south and east and turning hot in the south east. a good deal of sunny spells for many today but cloud and patchy rain for northern ireland, pushing into western scotland and north west england through this afternoon. across england and wales, dry and bright weather, good spells of sunshine, showers perhaps in parts of wales and south—west england. pushing into the midlands. this is four p:m., cloudier skies in the east. outbreaks of rain into western parts of scotland, parts of cumbria, northern ireland. breezy in the rain. the best brightness in the south east and temperatures about 25, 20 six celsius at four o'clock. this evening and overnight, we continue to see outbreaks of rain working north and east across scotland. cloudy skies for northern ireland, wales and parts of the

south—west. clear spells in the east with potential for mist along western coasts. temperatures between 11 and 14 celsius overnight. tomorrow, there will be a fair amount of cloud across the northern half of the uk for scotland, northern ireland, northern england. showers perhaps. cloudy across the midlands, wales and south—west with sunny spells. the best of the brightness in the south east. temperatures, hottest in the south east with the best of the sunshine, more cloud in the north, keeping things touch cooler. still looking at temperatures in the high teens, low 20s, not too bad. a maximum of 23 celsius for the northern half of the uk. further south, 30 celsius in the uk. further south, 30 celsius in the south east. into friday, a weather front brings patchy outbreaks of rain, in northern ireland, southern scotland and southern england. showers across scotla nd southern england. showers across scotland but some sunny spells, the best of the brightness again in the south east. showers again could feed into parts of wales and south—west england but temperatures are

pedigree on friday. highs of 33 celsius possible in the south east. into the weekend, dry and bright weather, cloudierfurther north into the weekend, dry and bright weather, cloudier further north with showery outbreaks of rain for parts of northern scotland. temperatures on saturday still hot in the south east but not as warm as friday with temperatures peaking on friday. good morning. hello it's wednesday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm chloe tilley, welcome to the programme could universal credit put claimants who live with abusive partners at additional risk? that's the conclusion of a cross party committee of mps, who warn that the system is turning the clock back to the 1950s by allowing abusers to take control of family finances. we're speaking to the chair of that committee, frank field, and to a woman who says her abusive partner withheld benefits from her and her three children — to the point that she couldn't buy basic items. thousands of children in the uk are forced to share beds with their siblings or sleep on the floor, according to new figures from a charity. i was surviving on two hours' sleep.

i was getting annoyed with myself. i was feeling like i shouldn't be a mum because my children were going without what they needed.